A janitor at a newly opened soccer and sports complex was arrested on Monday morning after police said he staged an armed robbery at the Fremont Street facility.

Gregory Pimenta, 51, of 140 Rear Fremont St., was arrested on Monday after he reported an armed robbery at Fore Kicks, which held its grand opening in Taunton earlier this year. Taunton police said Pimenta told them he was beaten and bound while $5,000 was stolen from the business, before later confessing to hiring another unidentified man to break into the building, tape him down and take the money.

Pimenta was arraigned in Taunton District Court on Tuesday and was charged with larceny over $250 by a single scheme, malicious destruction of property more than $250, filing a false report of a crime and breaking into a depository. Pimenta, who allegedly said he was addicted to opiates, was also charged with breaking into the Triumph Head Start last week, where he previously worked as a maintenance manager.

Judge John Canavan gave Pimenta a $1,000 bail, explaining in a court document that Pimenta was being “sectioned” to state-mandated drug addiction treatment, and that he had no prior record.

Taunton police have not yet arrested the other person involved with the Fore Kicks robbery, but investigators are looking at surveillance footage. Police said the suspect broke in through a window.

“We don’t know who the other person is yet,” said Taunton Police Chief Ed Walsh, on Tuesday.

Pimenta allegedly told police that a masked robber wearing a black hoodie confronted him inside the building, threatened him with a gun — which was never shown — taped him to a chair, punched him in the head and took money from two registers at a concessions stand. The robbery was first reported around 3 a.m., but police said they started to suspect Pimenta was involved, since he was already a strong suspect in the Triumph Head Start break-in last Thursday.

“During the course of the investigation throughout the day, Mr. Pimenta became the prime suspect in the robbery,” a Taunton police report said. “At approximately 6 p.m. the police station received a phone call from Thomas Teager, president and owner of Fore Kicks. He stated that Mr. Pimenta had come into the complex and confessed to the robbery.”

Police said Pimenta confessed to them on video. “He confessed to hiring someone to stage the robbery with him,” the report said.

Pimenta also allegedly told police that he is addicted to Percocet, or Oxycodone, and sometimes does heroin to supplement his pill habit.

“Mr. Pimenta admitted, during his interview, that he has a drug addiction,” the report said. “He stated he uses three Perc 30s a day. Sometimes he has to substitute that addiction with heroin.”

Page 2 of 2 - Opiate and heroin addiction has been a hot topic in Taunton, since the beginning of the year, resulting in 135 reported heroin overdoses, including nine fatalities. Public health experts and police have said that often that users of pharmaceutical opiates will switch to the cheaper heroin once their pill habit becomes too expensive.